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On this day: April 29

2014: British actor Bob Hoskins, best known for his roles in movies such as "The Long Good Friday," "Mona Lisa," "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and "Hook," dies of pneumonia at age 71 in London, England.

2011: Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Kate Middleton marry at Westminster Abbey in London, England, in a wedding watched live by hundreds of millions of people around the world. Upon her marriage, Middleton became Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge.

2008: Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann, the first to synthesize the drug LSD, dies at the age of 102 in Burg im Leimental, Switzerland. Hofmann, seen here in 1993, first made the drug in 1938 at the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland, in hopes of treating respiratory problems. The short form "LSD" comes from the drug's early codename LSD-25, an abbreviation for the German "Lysergsäure-diethylamid" followed by a sequential number. Hofmann also was the first person to ever observe the psychedelic effects of LSD when he accidentally absorbed some of the drug through his skin from touching its container on April 16, 1943. Three days later, he intentionally ingested 250 micrograms of LSD, becoming the first intentional acid trip.

2004: Oldsmobile builds its final car, ending 107 years of production. The division's last car built was an Alero GLS 4-door sedan, which was signed by all of the assembly line workers.

1996: Following a three-month run off-Broadway, the musical "Rent" opens on Broadway. Based on Giacomo Puccini's opera "La bohème," the musical tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians in New York's Lower East Side. The production would be nominated for 10 Tony Awards later in the year, winning four: Best Musical, Best Book, Best Original Score and Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical for Wilson Jermaine Heredia.

1992: Rioting in Los Angeles follows the acquittal of police officers charged with excessive force in the beating of Rodney King. Widespread looting, assault, arson and murder took place during the three days of riots before soldiers from the California Army National Guard (pictured) and U.S. Marines were able to restore control over the city. In total, 53 people were killed during the riots and more than 2,000 people were injured. Hundreds of buildings were destroyed, with estimates of property damages topping $1 billion.

1991: A cyclone strikes the Chittagong district of southeastern Bangladesh with winds of around 155 miles per hour, killing at least 138,000 people and leaving as many as 10 million homeless. The storm forced a 20-foot storm surge inland over a wide area and is among the deadliest tropical cyclones on record.

1986: Roger Clemens of the Boston Red Sox sets a major-league baseball record by striking out 20 Seattle Mariners batters in one game, breaking the previous record of 19 set by five different pitchers. Later in the same season Clemens would tie his mark and Chicago Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood would also tie the record in 1998.

1981: Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Steve Carlton becomes the first left-handed pitcher in the major leagues to get 3,000 career strikeouts. In 2000, Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Randy Johnson would join him as the only other lefty in the 3,000 career strikeout club.

1980: English film director Alfred Hitchcock, best known for movies such as "Psycho," "Rear Window" and "North by Northwest," and the TV anthology series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," dies of renal failure at the age of 80 in Bel Air, Calif.

1975: In Operation Frequent Wind, the United States begins to evacuate U.S. citizens from Saigon prior to an expected North Vietnamese takeover. Pictured here are evacuees being offloaded onto the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Midway.

1974: President Richard Nixon announces the release of edited transcripts of White House tape recordings relating to the Watergate scandal.

1970: Actress Uma Thurman, best known for movies such as "Dangerous Liaisons," "Pulp Fiction," "Batman & Robin" and the "Kill Bill" movies, is born in Boston, Mass.

1970: Tennis player Andre Agassi, a former world No. 1 who was one of the game's most dominant players from the early 1990s to the mid-2000s, is born in Las Vegas, Nevada. Agassi is an eight-time Grand Slam champion, including four Australian Open titles, who competed in 15 Grand Slam finals and a 1996 Olympic gold medalist.

1968: Singer Carnie Wilson, best known as a member of the pop group Wilson Phillips and the daughter of Beach Boy Brian Wilson, is born in Los Angeles, California.

1968: The rock musical "Hair" opens on Broadway. The show was controversial for its profanity, its depiction of the use of illegal drugs, its treatment of sexuality, its irreverence for the American flag, and its nude scene. Featuring songs such as "Hair," "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" and "Good Morning Starshine," the production ran for four years and 1,750 performances before closing on July 1, 1972.

1967: Rapper, music producer and actor Master P, best known for songs such as "I Miss My Homies," "I Got the Hook Up," "Make 'Em Say Uhh!" and "Souljas," is born Percy Robert Miller Sr. in New Orleans, La.

1967: Aretha Franklin's "Respect" is released. Her version of the song, written and originally recorded by Otis Redding in 1965, would eventually hit No. 1 on both the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and the R&B Singles chart.

1958: Actress Eve Plumb, best known for playing Jan Brady on the TV sitcom "The Brady Bunch," is born in Burbank, Calif.

1958: Actress Michelle Pfeiffer, best known for movies such as "Scarface," "The Fabulous Baker Boys," "Dangerous Liaisons," "Batman Returns," "The Witches of Eastwick" and "Dangerous Minds," is born in Santa Ana, Calif. She received Oscar nominations for her roles in "The Fabulous Baker Boys," "Dangerous Liaisons" and "Love Field."

1957: Daniel Day-Lewis, the only actor to have won three Academy Awards for Best Actor, is born in London, England. Day-Lewis won Oscars for his performances in "My Left Foot," "There Will Be Blood" and "Lincoln," and was also nominated for "Gangs of New York" and "In the Name of the Father." His other movies include "The Last of the Mohicans," "The Age of Innocence," "The Crucible" and "Nine."

1955: Actress Kate Mulgrew, best known for her TV roles on "Star Trek: Voyager" and "Ryan's Hope," is born in Dubuque, Iowa.

1954: Comedian and actor Jerry Seinfeld, best known for the 1990s sitcom "Seinfeld," is born in Brooklyn, New York. Seinfeld won an Emmy for the show and was also nominated another 12 times over its run.

1953: The first U.S. experimental 3D-TV broadcast shows an episode of "Space Patrol" on Los Angeles television station KECA-TV.

1951: Race car driver Dale Earnhardt, a seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion considered one of the best NASCAR drivers of all time, is born in Kannapolis, N.C. Earnhardt died of basilar skull fracture in a last-lap crash during the Daytona 500 on Feb. 18, 2001, at the age of 49. Earnhardt won a total of 76 races over the course of his career, including one Daytona 500 victory in 1998, and his seven championships ties him with Richard Petty for the most ever.

1947: Rock singer-songwriter and musician Tommy James (center), best known as the frontman for the band Tommy James and the Shondells, is born in Dayton, Ohio. Tommy James and the Shondells were best known for the hits "I Think We're Alone Now," Mony Mony," "Crimson and Clover," "Mirage" and "Crystal Blue Persuasion."

1945: The Dachau concentration camp is liberated by United States troops. Located about 10 miles northwest of Munich, Dachau opened in 1933 as the first of the Nazi concentration camps in Germany. More than 30,000 people were killed at the camp while it was in operation. The American troops were so horrified by conditions at the camp that a few killed some of the camp guards after they had surrendered.

1945: The German army in Italy unconditionally surrenders to the Allies. Here a Sikh soldier of the 4th Division of the Indian Army, attached to the British Fifth Army, holds a captured Nazi flag following the surrender.

1945: Adolf Hitler marries his longtime partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker and designates Adm. Karl Dönitz as his successor. Both Hitler and Braun would commit suicide in the bunker the following day.

1933: Country music singer-songwriter Willie Nelson, best known for songs such as "On the Road Again," "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground," "Whiskey River" and "Yesterday's Wine," is born in Abbott, Texas. He also wrote songs such as "Crazy," made into a hit by Patsy Cline, "Hello Walls," a hit for Faron Young, and "Funny How Time Slips Away," a hit for Billy Walker. Nelson has also acted in more than 30 films, co-authored several books and has been involved in activism for the use of biofuels and the legalization of marijuana.

1918: Pro Football Hall of Fame coach George Allen, who never had a losing season in 12 seasons with the Los Angeles Rams and Washington, is born in Nelson County, Va. He ranked 10th all-time in coaching victories at the time of his retirement in 1977 and still owns the fourth best winning percentage in the NFL. He died of ventricular fibrillation at age 72 on Dec. 31, 1990.

1901: Japanese Emperor Hirohito, who reigned from Dec. 25, 1926, until his death in 1989, is born in Aoyama Palace in Tokyo, Japan. During his 62-year reign, Hirohito saw Japan recover from World War II and emerge as the world's second largest economy.

1899: Composer, pianist and big-band leader Duke Ellington, a major figure in the history of jazz whose career spanned more than 50 years, is born Edward Kennedy Ellington in Washington, D.C. He died from lung cancer and pneumonia at age 75 on May 24, 1974.

1863: Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst is born in San Francisco, Calif. Hearst, who entered publishing in 1887 by taking over the San Francisco Examiner from his father, helped spur the rise of yellow journalism with his New York Journal and eventually created the largest newspaper and magazine business in the world.

1862: New Orleans, La., falls to Union forces under Adm. David Farragut. The capture of the largest Confederate city was a turning point in the American Civil War.

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